Press House building

BOČENKARO-MACKEVIČ Liubov, Vilnius

On January 11, 1991 I was going home on trolley bus no.7. The trolley bus couldn't get to the stop at the Press House because tanks and armored vehicles were there. People were getting off the trolley bus, and I did the same. Soldiers were climbing out of military vehicles and surrounding the Press House. Suddenly a powerful shot came from one of the tanks, shattering some of the windows in the building. Then the soldiers were ordered to break through the crowd that was defending the door. They ran past me, firing their sub-machine guns. Out of the crowd came four wounded men, one of them a young man (about 17 or 18) who had been shot in the face. I watched him pass by, covered with blood, and I began crying loudly, begging the soldiers not to repeat their attack. They didn't respond to my pleading, they just stared at me with their glassy eyes and said nothing.

I, a Russian woman, cannot forgive these criminals for causing innocent blood to be shed. I will fight, together with the people of all nationalities, for an independent Lithuania and for Lithuanian citizenship.